S&W Revolver Locking Itself

"I am mad.

No one here has ever seen me mad before, My wife has only seen it once, but here I am.

I got a new .41 mag S&W 357PD Air lite a few months ago.
To shorten the story it was built with a bad cylinder with one chamber out of speck.
I paid to send it back for repair. It arrived today about ten days after I sent it in. The cylinder had been replaced,so off to the range I go to try it out.
I fired about 36 rounds and was re adjusting the sights. I was shooting my own loads a 210 grain LSWC target load. nothing special.
I though I had the sights where I wanted them when about 3 rounds in the gun locked up.
The hammer dropped to where half cock would be and stopped.
I looked at the gun as if it had fell from the sky Dumbfounded would be a good description.
Having more than a little firearms training and experience I started to clear the malfunction. Pulling the trigger again did nothing. Pulling the hammer back did nothing.
The gun was locked up.

I mean that, the little metal flag that says "LOCKED" was up
I had not locked or un locked the gun with the key. In fact I have NEVER locked this gun and don't know where the key is.

The gun had safety locked itself.

I pushed down the metal flag with my thumb and managed to get the hammer down. I cleared the gun.
Frankly I could not believe what had just happened. I pulled the trigger a couple of times and the gun worked. I reloaded and fired it again this time it locked on the second round.
My temper boiled over. I packed up everything and left the range.

I recall reading in a gun mag last year about how S&W was saying this did not happen. That the reports of it happening were just "the Internet" and if it was really a problem then S&W would know.
Well they know now. I called and told S&W what happened. A pick up tag is on the way to me. I am betting no announcement from S&W will follow.

Thats why I am mad. People including me buy S&W products to bet our lives on. The lock is a useless feature that only appealed to S&W's litigation lawyers. The lock does nothing for the function of the gun,except to stop it cold.

"I say this as seriously as I can. If you have a S&W revolver with this lock feature for protection you need to re think it.
IT CAN GO BAD AND LOCK UP YOUR REVOLVER
This is not a product I can have faith in any longer.
I would be a fool to carry one to protect my life."

I've personally met two shooters who've had similar experiences with Smith's Hillary Hole. Both had excellent response from S&W and the problems were 'solved'. Now, I don't care who owned the bloody company when this abomination was foisted upon the shooting public, because if the new owners cared even half of a rats' ass about their customers they'd have tossed the idea long ago and gone back to manufacturing revolvers that actually shoot when the trigger is squeezed.

The LOCK can kill you. ANY company that makes such pieces of crap should be boycotted by each and every shooter in America, and any Clint Smith type who shills for these bastards should be drummed out of the business.

Please click the headline link to arrive at the origin of this story, and thanks to Call me Ahab for the heads up.

And one more comment by another unhappy camper:

"If you can find someone that has worked for more than 6 years with the NC Dept. Probation/Parole, ask them why we sent ALL of our new S&W revolvers back and were given M&P40's as replacements.

I used to work for them and personally witnessed about a 20 percent failure rate in the new revolvers; model 619 that had been intended to replace our aging model 65's. The gun would lock itself durinig a string of fire. I watched a surveillance officer hurl his new gun downrange at the target after his gun locked up a second time in the same qual. session. No, not smart, but a sign of how frustrated he was."